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Non-Tech : Complaints About Schwab -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: cirrus who wrote (64)	2/24/1999 6:34:00 PM
From: Mighty Mizzou	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 196

WSJ Readers, a perspective from one of the affected: Charles Schwab Corp.'s online trading service was knocked out for more than an hour Wednesday morning by a computer failure, sending clients of the biggest Internet brokerage firm scrambling for an alternate way to trade. Charles Schwab spokeswoman Tracey Gordon said a software problem with the system's main servers apparently developed overnight, and that technicians are still trying to determine what brought the system down. The outage began just as the trading day was beginning, she said, and service was restored at 11:09 a.m. EST. A software problem developed overnight? Out of the clear blue? C'mon!!! Some seemingly incompetent systems manager couldnt back out the change one of his/her employees loaded onto the system? Was this change even remotely tested? Wouldnt a problem this severe that affects this many people be readily noticeable? Down more than an hour, how about AT LEAST THREE HOURS DURING THE MOST CRITICAL PART OF THE DAY? So then we turn to the phones. After punching 20 numbers I finally get to the Web trading help desk. Busy at 9 oclock, no message or anything, just a busy tone. Busy at 9:30. Busy at 10. Busy at 10:30. Busy at 11. No message, no nothing. Schwab is untouchable. Do you want your future and securities in the hands of this type of organization? Please consider Schwab's upper management put this person in charge of your securities. Do you think if one of Schwab's internal computers malfunctioned, causing company losses, it would take over 3 hours to fix? Do you know where you stand in their priorities? This wasnt even a panic or high volume day and Schwab is flat on his face. DONT FORGET, if you can PROVE you were affected you can get a $500 voucher for a day's worth of trades AT A SCWHAB OFFICE. How many of you even know where a Schwab office is? Is it convenient to get to during your lunch break or better yet during rush hour on your way home? I guess they figure it beats waiting for their system to come up. Think about this before you go to sleep tonite. I dont have to, I made the switch. If Im going to get deep discount service, mind as well get deep discount commissions. Thanks Chuck, welcome to the Web! LOL!